Storage and Vase Life of Cut Rose Flowers as Influenced by Various Packing Materials and Chemicals

This experiment revealed significant influence of sucrose, glucose and silver nitrate (AgNO3) at different concentrations on the vase life of six (tropicana, peace, iceberg, eurpeana, strike it rich and double delight) roses (Rosa hybrida L.). It was found that different treatments had significant effect on each cultivar. The cultivars, tropicana, double delight and iceberg, excelled over others in all the treatments studied. Furthermore silver nitrate, in most of the cases, gave better performance than the sucrose in enhancing the shelf life of cut flowers of most of the cultivars. The concentration of sucrose @25 g L^-1 superseded over the other sucrose concentrations with the value of 7.1 days in ‘tropicana’ and 6.4 days in ‘iceberg’ comparing the control (distilled water) with the average value of 4.2 days. In all the treatments containing sucrose, glucose and silver nitrate, the concentration of 150 ppm of AgNO3 prolonged the maximum number of days as compared to control.The influence of various packing materials, viz. cellophane paper, butter paper and aluminum lamination foil, on the storage and vase life of cut rose flowers (Rosa hybrida L. cvs. tropicana, peace, iceberg, eurpeana, strike it rich and double delight) was studied. Flowers were harvested at two different stages, viz. tight bud stage and loose bud stage. Data regarding storage life (days) and vase life (days) of flowers of all the treatments were collected by following standard procedures. When flowers of cv. ‘tropicana’ were kept in aluminum lamination foil at tight bud stage, both storage and vase life were maximum followed by cv. ‘iceberg’ in the same packing material. Cultivar ‘double delight’ harvested at loose bud stage and placed in cellophane paper exhibited minimum storage and vase life. Flowers should be harvested at tight bud stage and packed in aluminum lamination foil for prolonging their shelf life.